2. Richard Dyers theory
The theorist Richard Dyer suggested that distinguished that there was a
difference between a pop performer and pop star. He argues that a pop
performer transforms into a pop star when they are/their persona is
delivered to the public through other means other then just their music.
Dyer believes that the stage of changing from a pop performer to a pop
star is a very beneficial stage for an individual as it gives them the
opportunity and potential to allow the audience to connect with them
more, and expose themselves more, as it is much more easier to forget
an artists music without showing parts of their persona, therefore by
doing this the artist themselves and their music will become more well
known and popular which will eventually develop themselves into the
stage of becoming a “pop star”. Furthermore Dyer states that celebrities
are manipulated and constructed by institutions in order for them to
have a the greatest potential to appeal to a specific audience, which will
financially benefit them, this also leads to more grand awareness as
they are usually seen by “idols” in society.
3. Richard Dyers theory is very popular and it can be categorized in 4 different categories
which includes star constructions; the industry and audience, ideology and
culture and lastly character and personality.
Dyer argues that stars (celebrities) are socially constructed he argues that despite
there aim of transmitting an ideology of realism as “real people” there are artificial
images that are constructed by institutions. Dyer argues that this is extremely
beneficial for them as it helps there image use a unique selling point e.g. Can be
copied. He argues that stars are manufactured by the industry for a purpose and
this purpose is to gain financially from their audiences. Within there constructions
stars are also represented to share cultural values and attitudes and promote
certain ideologies the more the audiences interest the more that there “star
quality increases”. Lastly Dyer argues that a star starts off as a real person with
their individual characteristics, gender and race. He argues that star
transformation process turns these “real people” into constructions however these
constructions are not entirely false they do have a basis of real. Stars transmit
ideologies of what people should be like. This suggests that certain norms of
behaviour are given appropriate to given groups of people.
4. Stars as Constructions
Dyer argues that stars (celebrities) are socially constructed he argues that
despite there aim of transmitting an ideology of realism as “real people”
through emotions and beliefs they, are artificial images that are
constructed by institutions. Dyer argues that this is extremely beneficial
for them as it helps there image use a unique selling point to bring in a
wider mass audience appeal and make the celebrity more unforgettable
for the audience as they will be outstanding and eye-catching, due to their
USP which will drag the audience in as they will suddenly become more
interesting in the audiences eyes as that USP will be unique to that one
and only celebrity which will make them stand out from all the other
celebrities the are formally competing with. He argues that stars are
manufactured by the industry for a purpose and this purpose is to gain
financially from their audiences.
In Richard Dyers view stars are constructions that the audiences can easily
become aware of new stories through magazines, press, having famous
partners and much more.
5. Star Construction: Katy Perry
Katy Perry is a Californian actress that is an great example of a star construction. Katy
Perry perceived her career in gospel music in her early teens and released her debut
studio album Katie Hudson in (2001) having had limited exposure to mainstream pop
music in her childhood. Katie moved to Los Angeles where she gradually got
developed by institutions to apply to specific audiences and changed from gospel
music to rock music when she changed her name into a more edgy /catchy name of
“Katy Perry”. Her image is cleverly crafted to appeal to a wide audience fan-base. Katy
Perry's construction is represented across many different forms of media, it is clear
that herself and her record label are presenting her as a ‘youthful’, ‘fun’, ‘bubbly’ and
‘attractive’ singer. This is a star construction of her artificial image, as this is what she
wants to portray to her audiences so that she is more likeable, this also enables
audiences to express their emotions as many can relate to her music, despite this she
is not regarded as a “fake” star but a natural star that freely portrays her persona
through her music. Her history has also made her more likeable by audiences as they
are know aware of her failures before her success and appreciate her music as they
feel she has “earned it” going through the hard journey which many singers do not go
through representing herself through her real person through her emotions and
beliefs.
6. Katy Perry also has a unique selling point that ranges from her over-the-top fashions,
quirky stage props and catchy songs like “I kissed a girl”. During many interviews, on
streets and even on stage there is always excitement and suspense to see what Katy
Perry will come out with next, as she is one of the most unpredictable stars, her most
major unique selling point has to be her over-the-top fashion. Due to this she has
starred in many interviews and magazines questioning about her fashion sense and
how far it will go. Her unique selling point delivers her persona through her choice of
clothes and extravagant shows.
Katy Perry also dated the well-known British comedian Russell Brand that is very
popular in England, this immediately caught the audiences and presses eyes and
shortly became a very popular story and spread vastly and was often stirred and out of
context as many rumours have come out, which increased her appearance. They were
a very popular couple due to both of their quirky representations, which were well
liked by the audiences. The couple jetted of to India to have their private wedding,
without no public appearances, however this was also one of the most popular
weddings of all times, and starred through the press over a long period of time.
Furthermore to increase publicity, Russell Brand and Katy Perry shortly got a divorce
from one another, rumours were spread, that suggested that Russell Brand filed for a
divorce as he no longer found Katy “attractive”.
8. Industry and Audience
According to Richard Dyer stars are manufactured by industries so that
they will appeal to a wider mass audience, to serve a purpose.
Richard Dyer argues that this is a financial purpose, pop stars
generate finance from their fans and in order for them to do this
they have to represented in a way that they will appeal to the
audience, in other words they have to be moulded into the
audiences’ preference. Therefore this makes pop stars the product
of institutions such as the record company as these record
companies in Dyers words “Nurture and shape their stars”. Stars are
shaped by record companies in the ideal star for audiences will
respond to this created persona by purchasing the stars records and
albums which will generate masses of money for the stars
considering there success. This is a very vital point as in order to be
a success record companies have a duty to make pop stars stand
out, bolder and interesting as audiences will no be willing to spend
their money on artists they do not have any interest in.
9. Katy Perry is very successful in financial terms she has thrived selling over 1.1 million albums
her song ‘California Gurls’ sold 4,4 million online downloads and her album ‘Teenage
Dream’ generating 5 number 1 hit singles. These numbers show her global success and
market appeal to a whole variation of audiences this is partly to do with the record
company Katy Perry is signed on by called capitol records which are a very large well-known
recording company.
It is clear the Katy Perry has drastically changed over the years from when she first entered
the music industry. Her whole look has changed ranging from her fashion, style and
appearance. When Katy Perry first kicked off her career in 2004, her fashion sense was
completely different to what it is now, Katy Perry was a tomboy, who had a rocky fashion
sense. However Katy’s fashion sense has now been transformed, as she had to do
something to maintain her popularity with the press by doing something new and
unexpected.
10. By making a complete transformation in her fashion sense by changing to
some of the unique costumes the world has ever seen e.g. the cupcake bra
goddess she is known to be. This move caused Katy Perry to star in lots of
interviews, headlines and was talked about by all her fans who approved
of her “new look”. This indicates that the record company felt that Katy
needed a change to attract a wider audience and enhance her qualities
that would appeal to more audiences. This change now makes Katy appeal
to both males and females, her appearance now attracts males and
females seen as a role model by both younger and older females which
will potentially cause her to earn more money. This change has earned her
to become an international style icon.
11. Katy Perry also went through a phrase of wearing brightly coloured
wigs. This was also used as a unique selling point, however it was
also so that fans could automatically recognise who she was, as it
kind of became her fashion statement. This enabled her to
experiment with different styles which led her to become more
confident and create her own crazy/unique style which is adored by
all her fans. These are all examples of what is in the hands of the
record company, as this would be the record companies ideas as it
is there obligation to come with ideas that will generate the most
amount of profit for stars through the way they are represented to
audiences.
The record company also enables Katy Perry to promote and market a
variety of other products including pop chips, Sims 3 and adidas, to
simultaneously promote herself.
13. Ideology and Culture
Richard Dyer holds the belief that stars are portrayed as certain people
who promote specific ideologies by transmitting their beliefs and
opinions outside of their music. Richard Dyer argues that they do
this by sharing/revealing their cultural values and attitudes to their
audiences to create a greater link between the “star” and “fan-base”,
he argues that helps to create their star persona. This can be
done through social networking sites such as twitter, facebook,
instagram and through interviews and this may initiate promoting
fashion trends, with legion of fans copying their hairstyles and
clothing or even a charity. Social networks now give pop stars the
opportunity to establish their own values outside their music giving
stars their own unique persona along with the cultural values that
will engage audiences.
14. Ideology and Culture- Katy Perry
Katy Perry supports a numerous amount of charities and encourages all her
fans to support charities and donate to them. An example of this would be
when Katy Perry turned up to the annual snowflake gala, determined to
support the children's charity, Katy performed at the ball and also became
part of the travelling organisation becoming one of the ambassadors for
unicef, she also conducted a speech advising her fans to volunteer for
unicef abroad to protect and promote the rights of all children to build
schools, train teachers and provide textbooks so that every child can get
an education. Katy Perry also used the social networking site instagram to
encourage fans volunteer through pictures. As Katy has such a large fan
base this was very successful and put her in positive light.
15. In addition to her success a portion of her ticket sales was donated via Tickets-for-
Charity to The Children’s Health Fund, Generosity Water and The Humane Society,
and a portion of merchandise sales was donated to The Red Cross to benefit local
disaster relief efforts, this also encourages audiences to buy tickets, this was
widely spread over twitter and generated mass appeal. This shows that Katy can
be supportive with other charities that are not organised by herself. Katy Perry also
supported breast cancer, she has supported a large number of 18 charities. Katy
also presents lots of ideologies in her music ranging from gender, money and
power. Due to the caring ideology represented of Katy Perry and the things she is
shown to do represents her as a good role model for all as she supports all
charities and helps them with the best of her ability. This ideology and culture
represents Katy Perry as a warm hearted, giving star that makes her well likeable
by all. Katy Perry also releases many of her clothing, and fashion trends on twitter,
where she promotes them which generates a lot of awareness and profit for her,
as many fans choose to copy and follow her “unique” fashion trend e.g. her
different coloured wigs and brightly coloured clothing became very popular over
twitter and started a trend gaining many retweets and favourites.
16. Character and Personalities
According to Richard Dyer a star begins as a real person, possessing their own unique gender,
characteristics and race. The transformation from a pop performer to a pop star from the
record company turns them into a construction. This construction has the aim to be as
realistic as possible as is not entirely all fictional but has a basis of realism as they need to
attract a fan base of being themselves. The construction of the star is primarily based on the
generation and will be on the basis of what the audience wish to see. Dyer argues that pop
stars use the unique characters and persona’s to provide audiences with an ideology for
society of what people are supposed to be like e.g. Thin is because for women. They may do
this by conforming to the ideology of by being opposite to the ideology. This is because pop
stars are highly looked at by their fans and are seen as role models in their eyes which makes
them highly influential so their characters, personalities and appearances are important as
they may be copied and idolised by the audience.
17. Richard Dyer states that a pop stars character and persona is revealed
through their performances, fashion and music they produce. There music
is seemed to be based around society developing gradually. Music is very
vital for revealing a artists persona and character, audiences usually
discover a artists personality through their songs, this is especially the
case when an artist writes their own songs as audiences can discover the
real meanings and emotions that lie behind the lyrics of the song and feel
more emotions which makes the song more relatable creating a strong
connection between the audience and artist.
18. Character and Personalities- Katy
Perry
Katy Perry's character has greatly changed over the years. Katy Perry entered the music industry
in her early teen years singing and producing gospel songs including songs such as “faith
wont fall” and singing songs such as “Jesus is saviour” which depicted her as stereotypical
image of a young teenage girl being sweet, innocent and angelic. Although at this time Katy
Perry was not very well-known, this image still enabled her to a fan base which from here
gradually developed. The following year Katy Perry move to Los Angeles where she
attempted to venture into pop and rock music, where she aimed to pursue her music career
in and reach success. However as the years continued as Katy gained the opportunity to sign
on with the record company capitol records, where she her songs got more modern to suit
society, Katy Perry rose with fame when she released the song “I kissed a girl” which
drastically helped her to gain a wider audience consisting of both males and females as she
became very popular, her character and personality suddenly changed from an “innocent,
down-to-earth, angelic girl” to a fun, crazy , youthful, bubbly and attractive singer, almost
seen to rebel against her angelic self as she moved from her gospel music onto producing
music such as “Californian Gurls” which includes quite explicit scenes, which you would not
expect from “Katie Hudson”.
19. Katy Perry also began dating other pop stars/celebrities such as Travis McCoy,
John Mayer and Russell Brand. Her change of personality and character
could be see her in her appearance, fashion and confident attitude. She
was also shown becoming more glamorous and feminine from her
previous tom boy/rocky stage. Through a short period of time Katy Perry's
character and personality drastically changed to meet the need her
audience fan base’s needs. It appears that she is a very fun, bubbly woman
who is confident and enjoys what she does. She is seen constantly smiling,
laughing or having a fun time. This genuine personality and likability is
what really attracts her audience and is one of the main reasons she has
such a large fan-base.
20.
21. Reflection
I will use Richard Dyers star theory to construct my own star image for my
artist, by doing my research task on Richard Dyers theory I have learnt the
importance of developing an artists image so that keep up with the latest
trends, news, styles and gossip. It is highly important to construct the right
star image for my artist in order for them to generate a large fan base and
attract a suitable audience. In order for my artist to be successful and
make a great impact on the music industry I have to consider, to make my
artist unique and different to ensure that they stand out from the crowd,
so that they are easily recognised and more memorable, this will be very
effective as this will capture there persona and give my artist a unique
selling point. From my research into Dyers theory I have learnt that it is
important to shape my star in the audiences requirements; what they
want and what they expect to see, as this will appeal to wider audience as
my artist will meet all their requirements making my artist a success,
which will result in them earning and generating more money. I will also
ensure that my artist has a unique selling point e.g. Katy Perry's wacky
styles.
